Beta (letter)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beta (uppercase Β, lowercase β) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 2. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Beth 
. Letters that arose from Beta include the Roman B and the Cyrillic letters Б and В.
In Modern Greek, it represents a voiced labiodental fricative /v/, but in Ancient Greek, it represented a /b/.
Beta should not be confused with the German ligature eszett (ß), which closely resembles the lower case letter beta but is otherwise unrelated.
The Modern Greek name of the letter is [ˈviˑta]. The American pronunciation is [ˈbeɪɾə] whereas the British pronunciation is [ˈbiːtə]. See: American and British English pronunciation differences, IPA
[edit] Use as a symbol or name
Beta is often used to denote a variable in mathematics and physics, where it often has specific meanings for certain applications.
In international phonetic alphabet Greek minuscule beta is used to denote voiced bilabial fricative.
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